Are you focusing on Social-Local-Mobile?

Things are changing. 10 years ago, digital marketing was  much more raw and simple. You could throw up a cheap website, spend some time and money on SEO, and you could have gotten decent results. Social media was fresh out of the womb. The smartphone was only an idea, if that.

In 2014, the digital marketing landscape has shifted. Where things were once simple and straightforward, they are now complex. The effort it takes to one-up your competition is tremendous in comparison to how it used to be. Sophisticated websites are now the norm, social media is a full-blown industry, online reviews have usurped the power of word-of-mouth, and nearly all of your customers are smartphone-addicted.

What does all of this mean for your business? It means that your business has to adapt to these digital tectonic shifts, while being better than your competition is willing to be.

Doing that can be difficult. It seems like every week there are new platforms and websites and social networks on which you can showcase your business. When you market your business, the primary objective is to probably acquire more customers. And doing that can be near-impossible if you are reading all of these different websites and blogs, with all of their convoluted and contradictory advice. These days, nearly everyone is claiming to be an authoritative expert of online marketing. This makes it difficult for you to separate the truth from the fiction—to decide what will really deliver results for your business.

Just like many things in life, the best way to conquer difficult challenges is to reduce the nonsense. Your online marketing really doesn’t need to be this intimidating, complex entity that sucks the life out of your budget. Your marketing needs to be simplified as much as possible.

Why you need to focus on SoLoMo

At the end of the day, you need to be asking these questions:

1. Is my web traffic localized?
2. Can my customers access my business while they are on their mobile phones?
3. Am I interacting with my customers on social networks? Am I getting new leads and customers from it?

If you’re struggling to catch up to the ever-evolving status quo of online marketing, use those questions as benchmarks for what you need to do. Social-Local-Mobile (SoLoMo) seems like 3 different marketing channels, but they actually correlate with each other, and each one leads into the next. It is a powerful 1-2-3 punch combination. SoLoMo is an intersection of strategies that encompasses the current consumer culture. There is a new buying behavior: people will search for your business locally while on their mobile phones, and they interact with your business on social networks to help them decide if they will purchase from you.

Social Media

If you’re on Facebook, make an attractive business page.

• Nice profile and cover photos. A filled-out About section. An active timeline. Use company-branded graphics. Make sure that your profile is keyword-optimized.
• Run contests on your Facebook page.
• Encourage interaction and reviews from your past customers. Give specific discounts and incentives to entice prospects that are still on the fence.
• Publish engaging content like images and news relevant to your business. Publish short-but-sweet status updates.
• Do whatever it takes to acquire Likes from true Facebook users that are interested in your niche or market. Eschew fake Likes and false interactions.

For Twitter:

More of the same. Twitter is great because you can interact with your customers and prospects on a more personal level—it’s fantastic for both B2C and B2B engagement.

• Use a nice profile photo. Have a shot About blurb. Make sure your profile is keyword-optimized.
• Search for hashtags that are relevant to your business.
• Make it easy for people to find you on Twitter. Put social plugins on your website. In your advertising, tell people that they can follow you on Twitter.
• The most common rule to acquiring new followers is to follow people relevant in your niche so that they can return the favor and follow you back. If they don’t return the favor, stop being their follower.
• Don’t be afraid to interact with other Twitter users. Click ‘favorite’ on tweets. Try to retweet as much as possible without overdoing it. Curate stellar content that is relevant for you and your followers.
• When you communicate on Twitter, create original content that is both engaging and entertaining. Share interesting facts and insights about your niche/business. Show a sense of humor in some of your tweets.

Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social networks

It is recommended that you put your business on as many social networks as possible. The reason: You want to appear like a fully fleshed out brand that has all of its bases covered.

Social media, without a doubt, is a huge influencer of the purchases in 2014, and it will continue to be like that for the foreseeable future.

Local

We have previously talked in depth about what you need to do when it comes to local SEO. You should already be following the recommendations listed in that post. Now we are going to talk about how local fits into what you do socially.

Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and the other main social networks are indexed on Google. The more active you are on social media, the higher likelihood that your social profiles get seen in the search engines.

That’s why it’s important that you have done extensive research on local keywords. You will need to incorporate your keywords into your profiles.

Mobile

Obviously, make sure that your website is optimized for mobile devices. As PC sales continue to flatline, mobile usage is on the rise.

You will need to spend time and resources to make sure that people can find you on their mobile device.

The Bigger Picture

A common misconception is that SoLoMo is only a concept that gave birth to location-based social apps like Foursquare. And though SoLoMo does fit within that definition, we are talking about something a lot bigger than that.

We are talking about an evergreen strategy that meets the demands of the current buying culture.

Think of it like this:

Social is the platform from which you can spread your message. Your message and your authority will influence people to buy.

Local is where you are targeting. You will to target people in your local area.

Mobile is how people access your business, website and social media profiles. A mobile-optimized web presence acts as a bridge to the other marketing methods (local and social).

It is a machine that isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. In 2014, marketing needs to have a strategic mindset. And SoLoMo is a proven strategy that will continue to work.